Your Owen County Community Foundation

What Do We Need To Teach Our Children?

by Mark Rogers,

Executive Director

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the new Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) program at Owen Valley High School. The program, in my humble opinion, seems to provide our local students with training and education in some areas that many around our community have said are crucial to the students’ future success. People in our community seem to agree that students need some practical life skills like balancing a checkbook and home finances or planning a career and finding a job. But the more I looked into the role of our local community in deciding just what the young people here should learn in our public schools, the more complex the topic has revealed itself to be.

I watched my beloved “Antiques Roadshow” a while back and was fascinated by a letter brought in for appraisal that had been written in 1822 from the elderly retired President Thomas Jefferson to the family’s ancestor Joseph Echols. President Jefferson was replying to a request for advice on what young Mr. Echols should go out and try to learn to improve his lot in life.

D Sir your extensive Knowledge of mankind and your literary acquirements together with your Philosophy induces me to disclose to you my novel project hoping you will grant me (in confidence) your oppinions [sic] and advice on the subject of my inquiry. (later he continued) . . . although I am now 33 years old I am Particularly desirous of acquiring an education not only that I may Receive the enjoyment of it myself but that I may be more usefull [sic] to Society and more especially with a View to benefit my family.

What a delightfully simple way to build a curriculum for your personal education plan – just write to a Founding Father for advice. And on top of that, three days after he wrote the letter, President Jefferson sat down and wrote a reply.

Poplar Forest May 23. 1822

I receive here your favor of the 20th expressing your desire to enlarge your stock of knolege [sic], than which nothing can be more commendable; but I should not think your purpose of attending an Instructor at all necessary. We have now such excellent elementary books in every branch of science as to make every subject as plain as a teacher can make it.

President Jefferson went on to suggest important books in the areas of science, history, astronomy, and math. But that was then and here we sit in the 21st Century trying, as a state of seven million people in a nation of 317 million, to find some effective ways to answer the same question for our Owen County children as Mr. Echols posed to President Jefferson.

Until this week (this is where the issue gets more complex), Indiana was one of 45 states to adopt the Common Core, “a set of goals and expectations for what knowledge and skills will help students succeed.” The process of developing standards started in 2007 when the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) during their annual policy forum tried to address the differing state standards around the country. Continued work on the Common Core was announced by the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices in 2008. Development on the standards continued until the NGA and CCSSO released the final Common Core State Standards in June of 2010. States then began reviewing the Common Core and determining whether they would adopt them or not.

After some “exhaustive research” (that means it gave me a headache to do the reading required) on the standards, I hear that this week, Governor Pence announced that Indiana has pulled out of the Common Core and signed legislation to that effect. Indiana will now develop our own standards by July 1st of this year. The legislation outlines the characteristics of the required “new” standards (which is almost verbatim what the Common Core says). Not until I began reading the associated articles did I learn that, now, this issue has blown up into a big politically charged shouting match.

So after suffering through some of the vitriol, I’m not saying a thing about the Common Core. The Owen County Community Foundation has no position on the issue. But I will say this; we in Owen County have a responsibility to help our young citizens get what they need from our community schools. This is a complex topic already. The necessary discussions and debate will not be well served by our modern political rancor. The time has come for all of us, but especially parents of students, to evaluate this process and get involved. And I’ll add that this should not be a political football to kick around. The issue is too important. Our children are too important.

Information on the Common Core can be found at http://www.corestandards.org/. Check it out and be ready for some serious education jargon. As Thomas Jefferson said to Mr. Echols, “I pray you to accept this short sketch.”

I, for one, will also check out President Jefferson’s suggestions and find a quiet evening to curl up with Belsham’s “Histories of the Three Georges.”

Your Owen County Community Foundation is committed to helping our communities become better places to live, grow, and work. We value our children and want to help them succeed and be safe. If you would like to know more about how you can work with your local community foundation to help our students, give me a call at 829-1725, email me at mark@owencountycf.org, visit us online at www.owencountycf.org, or stop by and visit in person at 201 West Morgan Street in Spencer (we’re on the second floor of the Owen County State Bank building).